Sonos Launches AI-Driven Sonos 27 OS and New Hardware

Sonos Inc. launched the Sonos 27 audio operating system and two flagship hardware products to transition from a speaker brand to a dedicated home audio platform. The new operating system integrates artificial intelligence through Sonos 27voice, an in-house large language model for music curation, and Sonos 27mcp, an open interface allowing users to connect third-party AI assistants including Google Gemini, Amazon Alexa+, and Anthropic's Claude.

New hardware includes the Ace Ultra headphones and the Beam Ultra soundbar. The Ace Ultra features Adaptive Active Noise Cancellation, a user-replaceable battery, and Headphone Engine 2 for seamless audio transfer between home systems and headphones. The Beam Ultra includes upward-firing speakers for 7.1.2 Dolby Atmos and AI-driven speech enhancement. While initial reports listed the Beam Ultra at $699 and Ace Ultra at $449, later updates cited prices of $1,099 and $699 respectively. Both products are available for pre-order and will hit retail on September 29.

Additional updates include the Sonos Fabric feature, which allows portable speakers to function as rear surrounds, and the launch of the Sonos Play portable speaker in India on September 8. These releases follow a period of corporate crisis involving a failed 2024 app redesign, layoffs, and a leadership change. Chief Executive Officer Tom Conrad describes the new ecosystem as the culmination of two decades of work to establish a specialized audio operating system for the home.